Sunday, September 05, 2004

The Stumbling Yankees

Baseball is a funny game. A team with more money than some divisions can lose to a team with less than 1/4 of their payroll by 22 runs. Things like this aren't supposed to happen but they do. With the offseason acquisitions of Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield and the departure of their two best pitchers, only the sky seemed to be the limit for the Yankees. In April the Yankees stumbled out of the gate and it took a month for them to reach first place. A month ago analysts across the nation were saying the Red Sox only had a chance for the Wild Card. Yesterday the Red Sox were only 2.5 games back from the Yankees, a full 8 games closer than last month. As most of you know, Kevin Brown punched a wall in the Yankee's clubhouse on Friday night and fractured his hand. Below is a clip from an ESPN article detailing the injury.

The right-hander is still expected to miss at least three weeks after
breaking two bones in his non-pitching hand when he punched a wall in the
clubhouse Friday night, an immature act of frustration that could cost his team
dearly.

Brown had two pins placed in his hand at Columbia Presbyterian Medical
Center on Sunday morning. With a large bandage wrapped around his hand, he was
back at Yankee Stadium answering questions from reporters an hour before New
York played the Baltimore Orioles.

A contrite Brown said he planned to apologize to his teammates personally,
and also offered an apology to the entire organization and Yankees fans for
leaving the club short-handed in the middle of a tight pennant race.